A Light in the Dark
by TheStarvingEatSouls
Summary: (An Undertale one-shot) Blackness. The only thing there. Somehow, she's back. She's alive. And her only need is power.
_She stood, somehow, as a phantom image of herself._

 _Miraculously alive, yet not. She didn't truly know where she was, and yet completely understood the function of this seemingly empty realm. Finally observing her surroundings, she noticed just how dark it really was - then again, she was standing in the midst of nothingness. How she knew that was beyond her, but she didn't care at the moment._

 _After discovering that she could walk, she stumbled over to a bright little light that had caught her eye more than an hour ago. With each step she took, however, she more strongly felt this new, unique sensation. It was interesting feeling, one that she had never experienced before; it was as though her dead lungs were reinflating, her hands becoming once again solid . A silly notion, yes, but she had already felt the familiarity about this place the second she came here, so she decided to trust her subconscious._

 _Although it took a while, she eventually made her way towards the light. Now, to say she was a little bit scared and confused was a vast understatement, and it showed in her visage. The bright light before her had turned out to be unusually placed large, yellow letters that spelled a single name._ Her _name._

" _Chara"_

 _At this point, she had absolutely no clue as to why there would be any words in the middle of this void at all; let alone her own name. Curious, she reached out to touch it -_

 _In a matter of an instant, a white light surrounded her, and she could feel the life surge through her._

 _And damn, it felt amazing._

 _Smiling like an idiot, she began to laugh hysterically as she wrestled to limp towards the light source once again, reaching out her hand to make contact with the beautiful glow of the letters. Finally, after a short struggle, she felt her numbness be replaced by the burn of the light scorching her hand as she pressed her palm to the name. However, just as quickly as the light appeared, it vanished, and all that remained was the craving for the bloodshed she desired._

* * *

The air was eerily still in the corridor as Sans stared at Chara.

"I know you didn't answer me before, but... somewhere in there. I can feel it. There's a glimmer of a good person inside of you. The memory of someone who once wanted to do the right thing. Someone who, in another time, might have even been... a friend? C'mon, buddy. Do you remember me? Please, if you're listening... let's forget all of this, ok? Just lay down your weapon, and... well, my job will be a lot easier."

Chara sneered and went in for another hit. Once again Sans dodged.

"Welp, it was worth a shot. Guess you like doing things the hard way, huh?"

Sans hit Chara with a multitude of different attacks, each one harder to evade than the next. Eventually she tired. She couldn't avoid him any longer, and with a series of quick swipes Chara was sent flying and her HP dropped to zero.

Sans looked sadly at Chara's body, slumped against a pillar. He didn't feel any sympathy for her, because of all of the innocent people she killed. But he really didn't like to kill people. He saw the essence of Chara's soul rise from her body, waiting for it to shatter. But instead, it cracked, again and again, until it burst and the room was filled with a blinding white light. Sans stumbled back and watched as the broken outer shell fell off of an identical, perfectly intact soul. It sank back down into Chara's body, and she gasped a few times before looking around in confusion. Sans took a couple of cautious steps towards Chara. She looked up and saw him standing there.

"Sans? What are we doing here? The barrier was destroyed ages ago."

"...excuse me?" She saw San's dangerous expression, his sheer anger, and laughed nervously.

"C'mon, Sans…" she lifted her hand up as a request for help up. He shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Don't you 'c'mon Sans' me. I'm not going to fall for this goodie two shoes act again, not after you murdered my brother in cold blood." Chara's eyes went wide with shock.

"Sans? What are you _talking_ about? I'd rather die than hurt your brother, you know that. I've been dating him for two years." She winced as she got up on her own to meet his eyes, before realizing she was much shorter than him. She could see hatred beneath the confusion in his eyes and started to tear up. "S-Sans? Sans, you're scaring me…" She began crying. "Papy? You can come out now, joke's over! Papyrus?! Sans, this isn't funny!"

Sans stared at the body of the child before him. "What's your name?" He asked warily.

"Sans? Y-you know me. Sans, it's me, it's Frisk…" He shook his head slowly.  
"I don't know you." He stated bluntly. "I know Chara." Frisk backed up against a wall, eyes filled with horror.

"I… I…. no. No, not her…" She tried to register that she had become the being that haunted her sleep and murdered her loved ones in her nightmares. He stared at her as she examined herself. Perhaps, this was the good? This soul, trapped underneath the possession of evil? Or was it just another one of her tricks?

As he contemplated this, he heard the child mumbling to herself.

"It's just a dream, it's all just another bad dream…" she repeated this over and over as she looked at the dust covering her clothes, and then at the knife in her hand.

"It's just a bad dream…" she whispered once more before grabbing the knife with both hands and pointing it at her stomach. Sans blinked as she thrust it towards herself.

The knife was suddenly surrounded by blue energy as Sans held it still, and she couldn't complete her attempt. She backed up slowly, seeing the droplets of crimson blood hit the floor from the tip of the blade that impaled her skin. Staggering back, Frisk fell to her knees and began to sob. The knife clattered to the floor as Sans walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder and sighed.

"So kid, what happened on your side?"

Frisk explained everything, how she had fallen into the underground, left the ruins and met Sans, fallen in love with Papyrus, and refused to kill a soul. She told him about fighting Flowey, and the souls of the six children, and Asriel Dreemurr breaking the barrier when she was twelve. She told him about growing up, learning more about how magic worked, and getting together with Papyrus at 21.

Sans looked at Frisk, and kneeled down to hug her. She sat still in shock for a moment before hugging him back tightly.

"Look kiddo. I can see the good in you, and I trust you are who you say you are. But what good can come from suicide? I mean, this world clearly wasn't reset by you. What makes you think you'll get back to where you came from?" Frisk contemplated this for a moment.

"You killed Chara, right? So her save points are invalid, I think. I should return to the last time _I_ saved, in the other timeline. I hope. But it's worth a shot. Sans, we could have Papyrus back. Toriel. Undyne. Alphys. Everyone else I-"

"Chara," interrupted Sans. "Everyone else Chara killed."

Tears leaked from her eyes again. "Sans, I could go _home._ "

Sans smiled as he began to cry as well, to the surprise of Frisk.

"You're… you're right. Do you want me to do it?"  
"Yeah… yeah, I do."

"Okay."

Sans grabbed Frisk's hands in his own and smiled at her.

"Don't you worry kid. It's going tibia okay. I can feel it in my bones." Frisk giggled. "Are you ready?" she took a deep breath.

"I am."

"Okay. Be seeing you, kid." He gave her his biggest grin as they stood together, hand in hand, sobbing in the castle corridor. "Be brave. 3… 2… 1…"

There was a flash of light from San's left eye and Frisk rocketed upward in a cold sweat, gasping. She was at home, in her bed. Her face was still wet with tears. Was it a dream after all?

"My child!" Toriel opened Frisk's door, Sans in tow. "Are you alright? I heard you crying… did you have a nightmare?" Frisk nodded, still shaking. "Oh my dear… Sans, stay here with Frisk. I'm going to get her some tea." Toriel hurried out of the room, and Sans stood in the doorway for a second before walking over to Frisk's bed and sitting down next to her. He turned to her, looked her over and then hugged her tightly.

"You did a good thing, kid."


End file.
